Matt Weidner – Fighting With The American People

Posts Tagged ‘The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act’

The Fat Cat Bankers have chosen to title their anti-consumer bill the Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act.

I woke up this morning just furious at that name.  The name suggests that somehow consumers will benefit from something in it or that their credit will somehow be, “rehabilitated”.  Make no mistake, there is nothing, I mean not one thing about this bill that will benefit any Floridian.  The full text of the proposed bill can be found here. I challenge any person to find one thing in this bill that will do anything good for any citizen…..there’s just nothing in the bill that does anything except trying to give the fat cat bankers an end run around judges and the court system which is not doing things their way.

Bottom line is the lies, fraud and deception that the banks and lenders perpetrated on citizens and consumers is coming back to haunt them.  Judges are increasingly skeptical of the bankers claims and they’re not just giving them a blank check.  Rather than try and fix the problems they’ve created, the banks are trying to opt out of the judicial system and just strip a homeowner’s rights–important constitutional rights. The very name of the bill is an insult.  It suggests that by merely calling something exactly the opposite of what it is, legislators and citizens will be fooled into believing the lie.  I’m betting our legislature and citizens are smarter than that!

I am hopeful that the Florida Legislature will see this bill for what it is and that they will be sensitive to the rising consumer sentiment against the fat cat bankers and lending institutions.  I predict a big kill for this bill!

The banks and lenders that caused the American economy to collapse and then were rescued with Bajilliions of our tax dollars have caused themselves such problems and have engaged in such widespread fraud and conspiracy that they can no longer rely on courts of justice to help them extract ill-gotten profits from consumers and taxpayers through foreclosure. In recognition of this increasingly apparent fact, the bankers and mortgage companies that caused the collapse are now working hard to remove their disputes from court systems where judges and attorneys can force them to account for their actions. A bill that will be introduced in the 2010 session of the Florida Legislature called the  Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act would remove foreclosures from the circuit court systems and would allow lenders to throw a homeowner out of their home without the due process of law.  Normally I wouldn’t be too fearful that such a violation of a consumer’s rights would occur, but in these economic times when the banks and lenders run the country, to the detriment of taxpayers and citizens, anything is possible. The full text of the bill can be found here.

Click here to find your Florida Representative or Senator.  Contact their office and make sure they know you’re opposed to consumer rights being trampled.

I was wondering what the response would be to the backlog of foreclosures and now it has reared its ugly head in the name of The Florida Consumer Protection and Homeowner Credit Rehabilitation Act.

A review of this bad, anti-consumer bill can be found in the St. Petersburg Times here. If it passes it will be bad news for consumers…some of the lowlights:

• If you’re a financially strapped Florida homeowner — 62,719 Tampa Bay properties got foreclosure notices last year — the 53-page bill contains worrisome signs.

• Non-judicial foreclosures must conclude in no less than three months and no more than a year. Most Florida foreclosures take a year to 18 months to work through the courts these days, longer if a lawyer fights a successful rear guard action. So in 90 days banks can theoretically auction the home out from under you.

• The Florida Supreme Court’s newly endorsed mandatory mediation for lenders and homeowners would effectively go bye-bye. The bill provides only for informal meetings between creditors and debtors.

• Even after homeowners are evicted, banks can still pursue them for unpaid mortgage debt. But banks will waive that right if homeowners avoid trashing or stripping the house before the new owner takes over.

With the strong anti Wall Street, anti banker, anti fat cat sentiment on the street, this will be a hard bill to pass, but something will come of it and I’ll keep watching.